The Kingsley Hotel

The Kingsley hotel in Cork only reopened recently. It’s a 4 star hotel situated in the River Lee and only a short walk from the city centre. The hotel was shut down after floods in 2009 after the river flooded and left major damage to the hotel. The Kingsley is owned by the same family as Fota Island Resort, so my expactations were very high – being a big fan of Fota Island. The Kingsley has been refurbished and now offers a spa, health club, gym, heated indoor and an outdoor pool overlooking the river.

We just had an hour before heading to the cinema so we decided to go for dinner at the Kingsley. We were after just some simple bar food but since the bar was very busy – probably due to the heavy rain outside – we decided to have an early dinner at the Fairbanks restaurant.

We got there at 7pm and besides a party of about 20 the restaurant was quiet which suited us very well. The ambience is modern, chick and very cosmopolitan. I loved the interior!

The staff was excellent! Very friendly, efficiently and constantly checking if there was anything else we needed and if we enjoyed out dinner – which we truly did! Executive chef Paul Lane has a fantastic menu at the Fairbanks. I had trouble deciding what to order!

In the end, I had the venison with a chestnut and scallion potato cake, apricot jam and port jus. I loved the vensison the I had at Fota recently so much that i was hoping for the same experience and I wasn’t disappointed! The venison was tender and juicy and all flavours worked really well together. Mr. Sunkissed had the lavender scented duck breast with bok-choi and a hoi sin reduction. And after trying his, I have to say it was beautifully cooked as well. The mains were complemented with a rich and creamy potato gratin and baby vegetables. The meal and overall experience was excellent! I’ll be back for more very soon.